The Republican chairs of three House committees are ramping up their probe into whether ActBlue, the Democratic online fundraising platform, misled members of Congress about its vetting of potential illegal foreign donations.
House Administration Chair Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.), House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) sent a letter to ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones on Tuesday requesting additional documents under subpoenas issued last year in their investigation into whether the platform knowingly accepted political donations from foreign nationals.
The letter points to a New York Times report that ActBlue’s then-outside counsel was concerned that Wallace-Jones may have misled congressional investigators in a 2023 letter to Steil’s committee regarding ActBlue’s vetting of foreign donations.
“Given ActBlue’s demonstrated history of misleading Congress, there is considerable reason to believe that ActBlue may have deliberately withheld this responsive material to impede our investigation,” the letter said.
The committee chairs also accuse ActBlue of obstructing their investigations through “noncompliance with our subpoenas.” They requested ActBlue comply by April 28.
POLITICO has not independently verified the documents cited by The New York Times. Apost from ActBlue shortly after The Times’ story was published said Wallace-Jones “never made false statements to Congress. Her correspondence was reviewed and approved by multiple in-house and outside attorneys before it was submitted.”
ActBlue spokesperson De’Andra Roberts-LaBoo defended the platform and dismissed the letter as a partisan attack.
“This latest letter from Congressional Republicans is a desperate attempt to deflect from the Right’s ongoing issues,” Roberts-LaBoo said in a statement. “The reality is that we have always been forthcoming with Congress, and we will not be intimidated by partisan theater.”
Democrats have largely insisted that the House GOP probe into ActBlue, which powers Democrats’ online fundraising advantage, is politically motivated and without evidence. President Donald Trump has also repeatedly called for probes into the donor platform.
“We almost were in a, ‘This can’t be real, this can’t be serious. These are not serious people, these are not serious allegations,’” Wallace-Jones said in an interview with POLITICO last May. “And instead held on for a very long time to our traditional posture.”
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